1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a card processing apparatus and, more particularly, a card receiving mechanism for receiving only a qualified card having a regular width and thickness and preventing an unqualified card having no regular width or thickness and a foreign article such as a coin from entering.
Cards in the present invention include all cards such as magnetic cards, optical cards, IC cards, and various prepaid cards, which are issued for various transactions and various application purposes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Card reading apparatuses are used for reading various information (magnetic information, optical information, and electrical information) recorded on various cards described above to use various equipments and pay the expenses incurred by use of these equipments in accordance with the read information.
FIG. 32 is a schematic perspective view showing a card receiving portion of a card reading apparatus 301 arranged in an equipment such as a public telephone set. This card reading apparatus 301 is attached such that a card insertion port 302 formed in a recessed shape projects from an operation surface 303 of the equipment.
A gap D1 on each side of the recessed card insertion port 302 is set slightly larger than the thickness of a card to be inserted. A gap D2 at the central portion has a size for allowing to pass an embossed projecting display portion (ABC, N01234) of an upper surface side 304a of a card 304.
When the card 304 is inserted in a direction indicated by an arrow A, the card 304 is stored in a card storage portion (not shown) of the card reading apparatus 301 through the card insertion port 302. The information of the card 304 is read in an inserting/removing operation of the card 304, thereby enabling use of the equipment.
Of equipments using cards, in a public equipment such as a public telephone set, users may erroneously or intentionally insert foreign articles such as a coin from a card insertion port because the users are not unspecified.
Especially when the gap at the central portion of the card insertion port 302 is set large, a foreign article such as a coin is easily inserted from this port. A card cannot be inserted due to the inserted foreign article, or the card reading apparatus or the inserted card itself may be damaged.
For this reason, a mechanism such as a reading apparatus 305 shown in FIG. 33 is used as an automatic reading apparatus. In this reading apparatus 305, a roller 307 having a length almost equal to the width of a card insertion port 306 is attached by the biasing force of a spring 308 so as to close a space slightly inside of the card insertion port. The roller 307 is moved upward by the insertion force of the card 304 to receive a card. This mechanism effectively prevents dirt, dust, a piece of paper, and the like from entering. This mechanism, however, cannot prevent a solid foreign article such as a coin from entering.
Jpn. UM Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 63-89172 discloses the following technique. That is, when a sensor detects that an IC card is inserted from a card insertion port, the IC card is received inside by a driving motor. At the same time, a shutter plate is moved in the card insertion port by the motor force to prevent the next card from being inserted during the card receiving operation.
As is apparent from that purpose, the shutter of this conventional technique acts to close the card insertion port only when an IC card has already been received. If no IC card is inserted, the shutter is always open. This technique, therefore, cannot prevent not only dirt and dust but also a foreign article such as a coin from being inserted.
In a structure wherein a sensor for detecting insertion of a card is arranged deep, as this conventional technique, a shutter cannot act in accordance with whether an inserted article is guided by a guide portion and inserted, unlike a prior application (to be described later).
Jpn. UM Appln. No. 60-177910 (corresponding to Japanese KOKAI Publication No. 62-85947) discloses a card information reading apparatus. In this card information reading apparatus, two swingable plates stand on both the sides of a guide path for guiding a card to be inserted from a card insertion port such that the swingable plates interpose the guide path to oppose each other. Projections formed on the respective swingable plates are inserted laterally into the guide path. Both the projections are brought into contact with the widthwise edges of a card entering the guide path. Both the swingable plates are pivoted about a shaft along a card insertion direction to release pivotal regulation of a shutter arranged behind the swingable plates. The card passing through the projections presses and opens the shutter to enter deep. That is, this conventional technique has a structure in which, when a card enters, the projections of the respective swingable plates are moved in the widthwise direction of inserted card and pivoted about the shaft along the card insertion direction. This conventional art, however, can prevent only a narrow foreign article from entering, but cannot prevent foreign articles having different thicknesses from entering.
In this conventional technique, when a card is inserted deep, the projections and the shutter plate are brought into contact with the card to tend to damage it. Further, in this conventional technique, the leading end of a card presses and opens the shutter plate. With this structure, as the card is pressed deeper, the tension of a spring which biases the shutter plate in a direction to close it becomes stronger. Therefore, a strong insertion force must be applied against this tension.
For this reason, the same assignee as in the present invention filed a card receiving mechanism disclosed in Jpn. UM Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2-11591, which is expected to solve the above problems of the conventional techniques.
More specifically, as shown in FIG. 34, this prior application comprises:
a pair of guide portions (460b, 460c), arranged opposite to each other, for guiding a card (480) to a card insertion port while regulating movement of the card (480) in the widthwise direction perpendicular to the insertion direction; PA1 a shutter plate having a middle portion supported behind the card insertion port so as to allow the pair of guide portions to extend in a direction to guide the card and so as to pivot the pair of guide portions about a first shaft (458) along the card widthwise direction, and having, on a front end side, a shield portion (456b) for shielding at least part of the card insertion port to prevent the card from entering the card insertion port; PA1 a first biasing means (459) for biasing the shutter plate in a direction to shield at least part of the card insertion port by the shield portion; PA1 a transfer lever (451) having a middle portion supported so as to allow the pair of guide portions to extend in the direction of guiding the card and so as to pivot the pair of guide portions about a second shaft (452) along the card widthwise direction, having, on a front end side, a contact portion (453) which is brought into contact with the card at a position before the shield portion of the shutter plate near one of the guide portions to move in a direction of card thickness, and having a press portion (454) for pressing the rear portion of the shutter plate in the direction of card thickness to pivot the shutter plate in a direction to retract the shield portion from a position of shielding at least part of the card insertion port when the contact portion is moved by a predetermined distance or more in the direction of card thickness; and PA1 a second biasing means (455) for biasing the transfer lever in a direction to bring the contact portion into contact with the card. PA1 a pair of guide portions (460b, 460c), arranged opposite to each other, for guiding a card while regulating movement of the card in the widthwise direction perpendicular to a card insertion direction; PA1 a contact portion (453) which is arranged near at least one of the guide portions around the card insertion port and brought into contact with the inserted and guided card, and receives a force in a direction of card thickness upon card insertion to be moved in the direction of card thickness; and PA1 a shield portion (456) arranged to locate a portion contiguous to the contact portion and shielding at least part of the card insertion port behind a contact point between the contact portion and the card, and actuated to open the shield portion with movement of the contact portion upon the card insertion. PA1 a card slot member having a card insertion port, and a pair of guide grooves, arranged opposite to each other, for guiding a card inserted from the card insertion port while regulating movement of the card in a widthwise direction perpendicular to a card insertion direction; PA1 a shutter member having a lever portion arranged near at least one of the pair of guide grooves around the card insertion port and brought into contact with the card inserted and guided to be moved in a direction of card thickness, and a shutter portion which is integrally formed by the lever portion, located behind a contact point with the lever portion so as to shield at least part of the card insertion port, and actuated to open a shielded portion of the card insertion port with movement of the lever portion in the direction of card thickness upon insertion of the card; and PA1 a biasing member for applying a biasing force in a direction to always shield at least part of the card insertion port by the shutter portion of the shutter member.
According to the prior application having such an arrangement, when a card which is guided by the guide portions to be brought into contact with the contact portion is inserted, the contact portion is moved by its insertion force. With this movement, the shutter is actuated, and the shield portion which shields at least part of the card insertion port is opened to receive the card deep. Even if a foreign article such as a coin which is not guided by the guide portions is forcibly inserted, the contact portion is not moved, and the shutter is not actuated to keep the shield portion closed. Therefore, not only dirt and dust but also a foreign article can be certainly prevented from entering the card insertion port.
More specifically, this prior application has an structure in which, when a card enters, the contact portion near the guide portions is brought into contact with the card and moved in the direction of thickness, and the transfer lever is pivoted about the shaft along the widthwise direction of the card to be inserted.
That is, according to this prior application, the contact portion of the transfer lever is arranged near one guide portion to prevent a narrow foreign article from being inserted. The transfer lever is pivoted through an angle corresponding to the thickness of a card passing through the guide portions to retractably move the shield portion of the shutter plate, thereby preventing a foreign article having no proper thickness from being inserted.
Further, according to this prior application, when the leading end of the card passes through the contact portion of the transfer lever, the shutter plate whose rear portion is pressed by the transfer lever is pivoted to retract the shield portion arranged on the front end side of the shutter plate from a position of shielding the card insertion port, thereby allowing the card to pass deep. To the contrary, according to this above-mentioned reference, when the leading end of the card passes through the projections, only the pivotal regulation of the shutter plate is released, and the shutter plate is not retracted from the card passage. The shutter plate is pressed by the leading end of the card and pivoted to be retracted from the card passage.
More specifically, in this prior application, when a card is to be inserted deep, only the contact portion of the transfer lever is brought into contact with the card. For this reason, the card is hardly damaged.
Also in this prior application, after the leading end of the card passes through the contact portion of the transfer lever, the force of this mechanism to be applied to the card becomes constant regardless of the card position. The card can be inserted deep without applying a strong insertion force.
Note that the same assignee of the present invention filed a divisional application having the following arrangement as the subject based on the above prior application in Japan on Jul. 3, 1995.
The subject of this divisional application in Japan is a card receiving mechanism comprising:
The card receiving mechanism of the prior application or the divisional application described above, however, requires a large number of components because the contact portion and the shield portion are formed as different units. For this reason, the arrangement is slightly complicated, and the whole card reading (processing) apparatus tends to be increased in cost.
A reduction in cost of the mechanism of this type becomes an important subject because this mechanism is applied to various equipment such as a public telephone set.
On the other hand, a card processing apparatus is used for reading various information recorded on cards to use various equipments and pay the expenses incurred by use of these equipments in accordance with the read information.
The card processing apparatus is constituted to receive a card from a card insertion port formed in a slit shape, thereby reading/writing information. Cards to be processed by the card processing apparatus include a thin card such as a prepaid card, and a thick card such as an IC card.
The widths of these cards are almost equal. For this reason, a user may erroneously insert a thin card into a processing apparatus for a thick card only, and to the contrary a thick card into a processing apparatus for a thin card only.
Of these insertion errors, the insertion error of a thick card into the card processing apparatus for a thin card only can be relatively easily prevented by setting a gap of a card insertion port in the direction of height (direction of card thickness) small. However, the insertion error of a thin card into the card processing apparatus for a thick card only cannot be prevented by changing the size of a card insertion port.
As a technique for preventing a thin card from being erroneously inserted, Jpn. UM Appln. KOKOKU Publication No. 53-48649 discloses a card receiving mechanism, as shown in FIG. 35A.
In this mechanism, a detection roller 504 supported by one end side of a detection lever 503 is inserted in a card passage 502 communicating with a card insertion port 501. A card entering the card passage 502 is allowed to pass through the detection roller 504, while the card is brought into contact with the circumferential surface of the detection roller 504. With this movement, the detection lever 503 is pivoted about a shaft 505 through an angle corresponding to the card thickness to move a shutter 506 coupled to the other end side of the detection lever 503 downward against the biasing force of a spring 507.
A slit 508 is continuously formed in the lower portion of the shutter 506 in the widthwise direction of the card. As shown in FIG. 35B, when a thick card C such as a credit card passes through the detection roller 504, the shutter 506 is moved down to set the lower edge of the slit 508 slightly lower than the bottom surface of the card passage 502. The inserted thick card C is allowed to pass deep.
As shown in FIG. 35C, when a thin card C' passes through the detection roller 504, the shutter 506 is moved down to a position where the lower edge of the slit 508 is higher than the bottom surface of the card passage 502. For this reason, the leading end of the thin card C' is brought into contact with the front surface of the shutter 506, and the thin card C' is prevented from entering deep.
As described above, in the mechanism wherein a pivotal force generated upon passage of an inserted card is converted into a linear motion to transfer it to the shutter, at least a card passage detection member and a card entrance prevention member must be formed as different members, resulting in an increase in number of components.
In the conventional mechanism, described above, wherein the moving direction of the detection roller 504 is reverse to the moving direction of the shutter 506 upon entrance of a card, if the thin card C' is forcibly inserted, the entire card may be bent upward, as shown in FIG. 35D. The detection roller 504 is pressed upward by this bent portion to move the shutter 506 down. For this reason, the leading end of the card C' may pass through the slit 508, or the leading end of the card C' may be caught in a shutter passage together with the shutter 506 not to be removed.
In a card processing apparatus having the above mechanism, the detection roller and its shaft must be arranged between the card insertion port and the shutter. Further, if the shutter is to be moved by a distance larger than the thickness of a card to pass through the detection roller, the length of the detection lever must be increased. Therefore, the distance from the card insertion port to the shutter is undesirably increased. A short foreign article other than a card is jammed between the card insertion port and the shutter to disable the card processing apparatus due to this card jam.